Following the second world war, the project of rebuilding Glasgow's inner city slums was addressed by Robert Bruce's 1945 plan, which proposed a centrally-focussed high-rise city, with en-suite motorways and row upon row of tower blocks.

Some developments since built – such as the M8 motorway which now cuts right through the centre of the city – give us echoes of how the city may have looked if wholly reimagined as per Bruce's proposal, while many built remnants that echo the plan's utopian and somewhat Ballardian vision have since been abandoned and demolished following years of deterioration and neglect.

"What struck me was the disparity between the optimism of the model and the reality of what it might involve."

– Kode9

"I was certainly aware of some of the actual effects of the unrealised Bruce Plan from spending the first 17 years of my life there such as the M8, the relation of the city centre to motorways which seems quite unique and some of the grim, peripheral housing estates and modernist developments that were built to assist the clearance of slums. 

What struck me the most was the amount of destruction involved in initiating that project, how long it would have taken [50 years] and the amount of old architecture destroyed and communities displaced that would need to happen to implement it.

A soundtrack to a place that never was

but also to the actual influence of this unrealised or only partially plan, so it tries to embody some of the optimism of the plan with the grim realities.

The now abandoned high-rise-once-future Red Road Flats, Balornock.

That disparity is kind of summed up in the name of the piece, which I borrowed from the old Blue Nile track of the same name which was also a tribute to the city.

–Kode9

READ MORE: NICK LUSCOMBE'S INTERVIEW WITH KODE9